New Delhi, July 29 -- the record Cal posted last season when Sagapolutele threw at least two touchdown passes in a game. When he did not throw two scores, the Golden Bears went two and six.

Sagapolutele returned to Cal for his sophomore season when he did not have to. The transfer portal opened in December, and multiple programs indicated interest in a quarterback who had finished the year ranked third in the Atlantic Coast Conference in passing yards. He went home to Hawaii, consulted his family, prayed on it, and chose to stay in Berkeley. "Cal is the best place for me," he said, offering no more context than that. Head coach Tosh Lupoi had visited him in Hawaii, and the conversation apparently resolved something.

That decision is the...